A Chinese-American mother's perspective
When I first brought up “homeschooling” with my husband three years ago, he answered me in a hesitant tone. He said, “But your mother tongue is not English. How can you do it?” By God’s grace, he was willing to let me try. For three years, we have learned a lot about homeschooling and grown our interest in teaching our children.
I understand that there are lots of parents speaking English as their second language. They might be pondering the option of homeschooling but their concern of teaching in a second language might be holding them back. If you are one of them, I hope our website can help you in making an informed decision.
When I started to consider homeschooling, I read two books, "So You're Thinking about Homeschooling" by Lisa Whelchel and "The Child Influencers...Restoring the Lost art of Parenting" by Dan Adams.
Meanwhile, my husband was also reading the two books above and "The Home Schooling Father: How You Can Play a Decisive Role in Your Child's Success " by Michael P. Farris.
Then I researched homeschool curriculums by reading "Christian Home Educators' Curriculum manuals" by Cathy Duffy. Finally, I picked the "Before Five in a Row" curriculum for Kasi. After that, my pastor’s wife recommended another curriculum, “Learning at Home” by Ann Ward. I used it for my first daughter, Kasi, and also for my second, Ksena. They both enjoyed it very much.
Since my education is not from the U.S., I carefully selected a phonics program which requires no previous knowledge or experience. It is called "Phonics for Reading and Spelling" by Bonnie Dettmer. It gave me a thorough understanding of how English words are sounded out and spelled. Not only are my daughters learning from this but so am I. The results are that Kasi (5.5 yrs) can sound out chapter books with a little bit of help. Ksena (3.5 yrs) can sound out 26 phonograms and write 17 of them.